Special emissary: Fear of Afghan action prompted Achakzai’s trip
Leader of Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party Mehmood Khan Achakzai revealed on Saturday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had flown him to Kabul as his special emissary last month in the wake of credible information that the Afghan government was “likely to take some action against Pakistan”.
On June 19, the foreign ministry confirmed Achakzai’s Kabul sojourn amid speculation that the PkMAP leader was seeking Mullah Fazlullah’s extradition and eliciting its cooperation in Operation Zarb-e-Azb.
However, in an interview with BBC Pashto, Achakzai said, “The government received intelligence from very credible sources that Kabul is planning something against Pakistan.” He added, “The Pakistani leadership insisted that they do not want any misunderstanding or a dangerous situation between the two friendly countries.”
Achakzai said the government asked him to discuss the issue with President Hamid Karzai and the foreign secretary accompanied him on the trip. Achakzai had two meetings with the Afghan president, and the Pakistani foreign secretary and close aides to President Karzai were present at one meeting.
Achakzai did not discuss Karzai’s reaction to Pakistan’s concerns. Pakistan had shared the information of a possible ‘plan’ with ambassadors of the US, China and other countries, he added.
Achakzai said Kabul is mulling a response to the alleged cross-border attack by Pakistani forces that left three Afghan National Army soldiers dead in Kunar in June. President Karzai reportedly instructed his security forces to prepare for a response to the attacks, according to a statement issued in Kabul last month.
Afghan foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmad Shakib Mustaghni had also claimed that Pakistani forces entered Dangam district in Kunar province in civilian clothes and attacked Afghan soldiers, a charge denied by Pakistan.
“If Pakistan and Afghanistan want to end terrorism, they will have to make a commitment that they will not shelter armed opponents in their respective countries,” said Achakzai, referring to Karzai’s claims that Islamabad supports Afghan Taliban. Discussing Operation Zarb-e-Azb, he said the operation was launched ‘in a hurry’ and no one had prior information. “The ill-planned operation uprooted hundreds of thousands of people when there was no settlement mechanism for the IDPs,” he said.
Achakzai questioned why many Uzbek, Arab, Chechen and militants from other countries entered Waziristan. “Who supplied dangerous weapons, food and other facilities to these foreign militants who have launched attacks on the GHQ and other sensitive installations?” he asked.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2014.
COMMENTS (21)
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@Mohammad Akbar: You first should ask why Afghanistan is always following order from India to cause problem in Pakistan. Afghanistan needs to break free of Indian masters and stop being puppet state.
Well first happy Ramadan to my brothers in PAK. All I want to say is if two countries (AFG & PAK) had been honest against fighting bad guys and their policy instruments had been legitimate tools then these issues would have been solved in a month even without western intervention like security issue between AFG and Tajikistan.
@Rex Minor: Go find some work, perhaps driving a truck and importing heroin into Pakistan. That will be suitable for your sorry state. I would highly recommend you refrain from further verbal diarrhea.
Pakistan is not a country, it is a country under control of a military agency. We were Muslim brothers of Pakistan but why they supported Taliban? and destroy Afghanistan.
Most of the issues here emanate from the divide & rule policy of the British under which they used Jinnah to propagate his TNT. TNT not only divided an entire subcontinent and injected hate in each other but also prompted them to plot against each other. Pak army has tried since 1947 to wrest Kashmir and in the process suffered losses in 1965, 1971 and 1999 in overt operations and succeeded to quite an extent in covert operations in Kashmir by accumulating strategic assets (plan conceived by Jinnah in 1947 after Gen Gracy declined to raid Kashmir) in Pashtun area, developing strategic depth in Afghanistan.
Pashtuns, Baloch and Baltis/Kashmiris need to do some introspection as to what has Pakistan really done for their areas in the last 67 years. These remote areas remain as backward as they were centuries ago with no schools, no hospitals, no institutions, no universities, no industry, etc. These regions have been treated with step motherly treatment by the Punjabi establishment.
@Unbelievable, not surprised to see an Indian trying to help his Afghan brothers. I think India should take possession of all Afghan refugees in Pakistan and provide them food and shelter in India since both are brotherly countries. As far as Pakistan not winning any wars, well we did take almost half of Kashmir in 1948 and held an army that was 10 times bigger in 1965 to a stalemate. We have also taken back almost all the land that the Taliban were holding which were just the parts of the tribal belt and NOT half of the country as you dreamed of. Just snooping around on Pak newspapers doesn't make you an expert on Pakistan. Please do some research before commenting. ET please publish.
@Rex Minor: We hosted 5 millions Afghans, gave them shelter, protection, food, livelihoods They destroyed our forrests, some brought in opium and AK47s caused huge problems for Pakistan and KPK
Pak Army is NOT against Pakhtuns, but the agents the Indian RAW puppets in Afghan RAMA send over to do terror in Pakistan.
We support OUR PAK ARMY 100%.
Afghanistan is now basically an Indian puppet state.
The poor Afghans are being misled by puppet karzai and the Indian established Tajik staffed kabul intelligence service.
Karzai is a temporary puppet who has done long term damage to Afghan Pakistan relations
@Hamood:
Classic Pakistani chest thumping. I might remind you that Pakistan has lost control of almost half of it's country to the Taliban - lost 30,000+ civilians - and it's current offensive doesn't seem to have inflicted major casualties on the "rag tag militia". Despite the bravado your still ranked lower than N Korea, not trusted by any of your neighbors, and have yet to win a war.
Pakistan should have warned the US. That if they don't tell Afghanistan to behave we will cut off our supply route and will charge Afghanistan a transit fee and the Afghans and the US will get back in their place.
Rex minor is an agent of afghan intelligence. His agenda is always anti Pakistan. The army is HELPING the people of waziristan by ending the control of terrorists on their land. They r being looked after in the IDP camps where the govt n entire nation is contributing. Soon they will go back. Most pakhtuns do not like afghans and also want the afghan refugees to go back. This man should go to any bazar of peshawar and get a survey done. It will open his eyes.
@Rex Minor: Where do you get your information? The Pakistan Army includes a large number of Pakhtuns and our own Pakhtun relatives in KPK strongly back army action to clear the region of foreign agents and paid criminalsA few thousand tribals moved into Afghanistan, probably because they live close by and were harboring the foreign criminals wheres hundreds of thousands of Tribals have moved to sites within Pakistan where they are being served and supported by government agencies and the army itself. Learn the facts and then comment.
@Rex Minor:
We should be talking sanity. 3 million Afghans still in Pakistina Pakhtunkwa province. Tell me which country in the world sheltered this much of refugess till date and you are talking of half a million Pakhtuns. I belong to same area. Don't blow things. Afghanistan can't feed its own people living on Fully funded froeign aid. Stop this mud slinging. We should try to eliminate these terrorists and bring peace to this region.
The man is making a fool of himself. Pakistan army is now the declared enemy of the Pakhtun people forcing almost half a million people to seek refuge in Afghnistan cities. Does he regard this act as a misunderstanding between the two friendly countries? He must have the illusion tha the Afghans are not Pakhtuns?
Rex Minor
With millions of its citizens in Pakistan, Afghanistan needs to learn to have cordial relationship with Pakistan and not to harbor people who attack later solidarity. If Afghaistan doesn't learn that it has more to loose.
On a different token, it is pretty naive of Pakistan to let Afghanistan refugees stay in Pakistan for decades. They are drain on Pakistani economy and brought culture of violence with them. It was stupid of Gen Ziaul Haq and brainless Hamid Gul to have these people enter Pakistan. No other country in the world has bigger population of refugees than Pakistan and there is absolutely no acknowledgement of its effort by world community.
At that time, when refugees started arriving from Afghanistan, I wrote a letter to Ziaul Haq that they should be put in camps right at the border, away from cities, and everyone must be finger printed. Of course I never got any reply back. I raised my voice though newspapers as well but it was not a concern to myopic leadership's and few political parties insistence to help their "brotherns". And decades later, we are stuck with them.
Now either Pakistan should declare them as Pakistani, which unfortunately many of them have become anyway, or should have a plan to send back so many of them every month. Pakistan needs to worry first about its own citizens before worrying about humanitarian needs of other countries. If Afghanistan can workout to have some of them sent to its other friends like India then Pakistan must help to do so. Beside rhetoric, let Afghanistan's "other" friend pitch in to support some of its refugees. Why is it always Pakistan to help it and still get flak and attitude? I will not blame Afghanistan for that rather Pakistan which always bend backward to accommodate it.
Is he telling the truth?
"Achakzai questioned why many Uzbek, Arab, Chechen and militants from other countries entered Waziristan. “Who supplied dangerous weapons, food and other facilities to these foreign militants who have launched attacks on the GHQ and other sensitive installations?” he asked."
Does these simple three letter words ring some bells? RAW+NDS+CIA.
Is this a joke? Afghanistan cannot even take action against a rag tag militia that is called Taliban. What can they do against Pakistan? Oh and by the way they can take back their millions of citizens anytime they want to.
Afghanistan has to stop being an Indian puppet state and focus on improving the lot of its people. Since the British left the region in 1947, Afghanistan has allowed itself to be a staging ground for Indian misadventure against Pakistan but Kabul has only destabilized itself in the process. It's time they work together with Pakistan to bring stability to the neighborhood instead of just following Indian dictates.